Ethics Charges Against Dem Rep Proceed

Spent $9,000 on a wedding trip, $10,000 on daughter's graduation

Politicoreports that the House Ethics Committee is looking into charges that Democratic Rep. Rob Andrews used his campaign treasury as a personal checkbook:

Reps. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) and Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), the chairman and ranking member of the Ethics Committee, said in a statement that they will take until Aug. 31 to decide whether to create a special investigative subcommittee to look into the allegations against Andrews.

This comes after a recommendation from the Office of Congressional Ethics — the independent ethics watchdog — to open a full probe into Andrews.

Andrews spent more than $9,000 in campaign donations on a wedding trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, in June 2011 that was first reported by the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger. …

Andrews’ campaign also shelled out $10,000 that month for a celebration that combined his 20th anniversary in Congress with his daughter’s high-school graduation.